AMD Radeon RX Vega Supplies And Pricing Might Not Stabilize Until October

AMD’s highly anticipated Radeon RX Vega family of graphics cards launched roughly two weeks ago (read the HotHardware review here), and it’s been crapshoot since that time to actually find the graphics cards in stock. Even for those that have been able to find one in stock, pricing has been through the roof (Amazon is currently lists the air-cooled XFX Radeon RX Vega 64 at over $700).

A new report is suggesting that customers won’t find any relief until October at the earliest due to yield issues. According to DigiTimes, there have been difficulties surrounding how the high bandwidth memory (HBM2), which is manufactured by SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, is integrated with the GPU package (instead of separately, on the PCB). Some are also pointing fingers at Advanced Semiconductor Engineering's (ASE) packaging technology.

The yield problems, which are exacerbated by the relatively large size of the Vega10 chip, explains why inadequate supplies have reached the retail channel and the subsequent markup that retailers are applying to the graphics cards. For its part, AMD issued the following statement last week:

Radeon RX Vega 64 demand continues to exceed expectations. AMD is working closely with its partners to address this demand. Our initial launch quantities included standalone Radeon RX Vega 64 at SEP of $499, Radeon RX Vega 64 Black Packs at SEP of $599, and Radeon RX Vega 64 Aqua Packs at SEP of $699. We are working with our partners to restock all SKUs of Radeon RX Vega 64 including the standalone cards and Gamer Packs over the next few weeks, and you should expect quantities of Vega to start arriving in the coming days.

For those that have been waiting anxiously to get their hands on the Radeon RX Vega 64, we can only hope that AMD can get its production problems under control sooner rather than later. Even enthusiast-favorite retailer Newegg is not immune to taking advantage of the situation, as it is currently listing the PowerColor Radeon RX Vega 64 and Sapphire Radeon RX Vega 64 at $689.99. That’s a far cry from AMD’s claimed $499 price tag for bare cards (sans bundle pricing).

In other news, DigiTimes says that because Radeon RX Vega has not posed a significant challenge to its year-old GeForce 10 Series, NVIDIA won’t ship Volta-based graphics cards until the first quarter of 2018. This represent a one-quarter delay compared to previous guidance.